With the New Year just right around the corner, many people will be bringing in 2019 with hope and optimism that this will finally be the year they achieve their goals. The obesity rate is increasing in the U.S. and around the world, so it’s no surprise that losing weight is once again among the top new year’s resolution goals. The sad reality is that many people who start in January with the intention of losing weight will fall off by March.

Many people who attempt to lose weight in 2019 will either 1) give up within a couple of months or 2) not lose any weight at all. Why is that? Why is losing weight hard?

Here we look at three potential reasons why losing weight can be hard and what you can do about it.

1. Are you drinking enough water?

The human adult body is made up of 70% water. It is an essential component of the human body because every cell needs water to function properly. For this reason, doctors and health professionals recommend always staying hydrated.

Why Should You Drink More Water?

Water helps improve blood flow and circulation; allowing the blood to carry essential nutrients to the kidneys and other parts of the body more efficiently.

Drinking sufficient water has been shown to be effective in reducing the risk of heart attacks, depression, and certain types of cancers. The kidneys will also benefit from a well-hydrated body. The kidneys are responsible for removing water and toxins from the body. Staying hydrated helps the kidneys to function more effectively.

A research study conducted on more than 50,000 participants, supported the idea that drinking an adequate amount of water helps reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancers. Not drinking enough water increases the risk of dehydration. Dehydration increases the chances of developing migraines and headaches. It can also slow down the rate of food digestion, which could lead to constipation. Dehydration may also contribute to weight gain by slowing down the body’s metabolism. A dehydrated body cannot properly perform normal metabolic functions and may also have a more difficult time using fat for energy. Chronic dehydration could make it harder for you to lose weight.

Dehydration also leads to lethargy and fatigue and increases your chances of gaining water weight. A dehydrated body holds onto every drop of water. Ironically, the only way to release the water weight is to drink more of it.

Drinking Water and Staying Hydrated aids in Weight Loss

Water has zero calories, zero fat, and zero carbohydrates. Water helps you lose weight by:

Recharging the Metabolism: Water increases the rate at which the body burns, breaks down and removes fat. A study, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, stated that water could increase the body’s metabolism by as much as 30%. The process begins within 10 minutes of taking a drink and reaches its peak within 40 minutes. Even minimal dehydration could decrease the metabolism by 3%. When the human body burns calories from any food/drink it consumes, it is called dietary induced thermogenesis.

Increasing Muscle Strength: Dehydration is one of the major causes of muscle strength loss. According to the Biochemistry Journal, dehydration can cause cell-shrinkage and protein-breakdown. For this reason, staying hydrated is essential for maintaining muscle strength.

Releasing Excess Water Weight: As mentioned above, confusing excess water weight with fat-based weight gain is a common mistake. When the body goes into ‘starvation mode’, it holds tightly to every drop of water present in the system. This causes the body to retain fluid, resulting in bloating (more commonly known as water weight). If the goal is to lose weight, then it is important to drink a sufficient amount of water. The more water you drink, the more water you release from the body.

Suppressing Hunger: Water is a great appetite suppressant. Studies indicate that drinking two glasses of water before eating a meal may suppress your hunger and reduce the chance of overeating. One research study noted that participants who drank at least half a liter (2 cups) of water before eating a meal lost 4.5 pounds of weight more than participants who did not. The participants of this study who drank water before their meals lost 44% more weight over a 12-week period than the ones who did not.

Reducing Cravings for Unhealthy foods: Water is the best kind of beverage to quench your thirst. The craving for sugar and empty calories increases when we consume soda. Additionally, sodas and other sugary beverages do not quench our thirst; rather, they increase it. As a result, the body ends up craving more sugary beverages and you end up consuming them. However, water is sugar-free and satisfies your thirst. Drinking water every time you’re thirsty is recommended, as well as keeping soda and other sugary beverage consumption to a minimum.

Aiding Digestion: Water aids digestion and helps keep the digestive tract healthy by allowing your body to absorb the nutrients from food more efficiently.

How much water should you drink every day?

Staying hydrated and drinking sufficient amounts of water are recommended; however, it is possible for people to go overboard and consume more water than the body can handle. Consuming too much water can lead to excessive sweating, insomnia, increased blood pressure, and, in extremely rare cases, death.

The European Food Safety Authority recommends that men drink eight to ten 8-ounce cups of water every day and women drink seven to nine cups. Obese individuals or those who engage in intense exercise may need to consume a couple of more cups than the recommended intake. Surprisingly, experts do not recommend drinking tap water. Research studies have shown that tap water may contain up to 800 different types of chemicals. When possible, always choose clean, filtered water.

A good method for determining the amount of water you need to drink is to pay attention to the color of your urine. When urine is dark yellow, it means the body is dehydrated. When it is clear, the body is usually well-hydrated.

One concern for some people is that drinking more water may increase the frequency of their bathroom visits. In the beginning, this is true; however, as the kidneys adjust to filtering out and removing the water, the bathroom visits will decrease.

Drinking sufficient amounts of water will improve the quality of your life and may also assist you with weight loss. Increase water intake gradually to take advantage of the many health benefits it has to offer!

2. Are your kidneys sluggish?

Kidney Health and Weight Loss

The kidneys are vital to the human body, but their significance is often overshadowed by other important organs like the heart, lung, and liver. The kidneys are approximately the size of a human’s fist and are located below the rib cage. Their job is to process and reprocess the blood and to eliminate waste products and excess water in the form of urine.

One of the most important roles of the kidneys is to filter blood on a constant basis. If not for the kidneys, there would be a buildup of waste products in the blood. This could prevent the body from functioning normally.

The kidneys remove waste products produced by the body in the form of urine; this is a critical function.

Urine production usually takes a couple of hours but is extremely important for keeping the body healthy and running. Waste that accumulates in the body can cause many life-altering and life-threatening complications.

Kidneys and Weight Loss

The kidneys and weight loss are directly related. Improperly functioning kidneys could lead to an excess of water in the body that may cause discomfort and severe bloating. This can have considerable implications for those who want to lose weight.

How do the kidneys help with your ability to lose weight?

While the research focusing on the relationship between healthy kidney function and weight loss is still relatively-infant, certain connections have been established:

The kidneys promote nutrient absorption: This is one of the basic functions performed by the kidneys. They are responsible and necessary for promoting the absorption of nutrients and minerals, like magnesium and zinc. These minerals are necessary for many metabolic processes in the body.

The kidneys help activate Vitamin-D: Vitamin-D is obtained from either our diet or the sun and needs to be activated before it can effectively work within the body. Vitamin D is very important for many metabolic processes in the body.

The kidneys remove toxins: The kidneys act as the body’s cleansers. They help filter the blood, and when they do not function properly, a build-up of toxins in the body may occur. This may lead to fatty deposits in the blood vessels or other organs. They can also inflame the blood’s lining causing the cholesterol and fat to stick. This may lead to weight gain and other health problems. A healthy kidney helps remove toxins from the body.

The kidneys produce erythropoietin (EPO): The kidneys produce a blood-forming hormone, called erythropoietin, that stimulates the bone marrow to form red blood cells. Sluggish kidneys could produce less erythropoietin, which would result in the production of fewer red blood cells. This situation could induce a hypoxic (low-oxygen) state in the body slowing down the metabolic reactions (this includes the rate at which the body uses fat for energy). Low oxygen in the body could induce fatty tissue inflammation and could make it harder for you to lose weight.

Obesity and Kidney Disease

Obesity has been shown to indirectlycontribute to certain kidney diseases. High blood pressure and diabetes are two potential consequences of obesity, and these conditions can affect the kidneys and increase the risk of kidney disorders. Obesity-related conditions could make it difficult to treat kidney problems.

For highly-obese patients in critical kidney failure, receiving a transplant could become impossible unless weight is shed.

How does losing weight affect kidney function?

The Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology published a report stating that weight loss could improve kidney function in obese people. The study revealed the possibility for kidney patients to mitigate their symptoms by losing weight through diet and exercise.

Regardless of how direct or indirect, the kidneys play a crucial role in weight loss. Kidneys that are not functioning properly could put you at risk for other health conditions. Chronic dehydration puts immense stress on the kidneys.

3. Do you have an all or nothing approach towards losing weight?

The All or Nothing Approach to Weight Loss

On the journey to weight loss, most people opt for an all or nothing approach. They usually set an agenda for a specific day, week or month and if even the tiniest thing doesn’t go as planned, they convince themselves they have ruined the entire plan and must start over from the beginning. They do not allow for even the slightest mistake or misstep.

This approach is not sustainable, and it stalls their weight loss more than encourages it. Worse yet, it causes a delay in achieving their weight loss goal because they compromise all that they have achieved for the sake of just one mistake.

This approach results when people try to be too precise with their weight loss plan. Though many people try, it is virtually impossible to count every calorie all the time. For example, a bowl of cereal may have more pieces on Monday than it did on Saturday, but you would not be able to tell the difference. If you remove the crust from the bread when eating breakfast, how many calories do you subtract? Striving for this kind of accuracy will exhaust you.

You save your “cheat meals” for Friday or Saturday; however, you decide to go out and eat with friends on a Wednesday and have a slice of pizza and French fries. Now it’s Thursday and you beat yourself up mentally and feel like the rest of your week is ruined. You tell yourself that you might as well eat pizza and fries (or cake, donuts, etc.) for the rest of the week. You promise yourself that you will start again next week, with the intention of not derailing from your plan. However, you had the same intention last week and the week before. You do not realize you are in a continuous cycle of trying to seek perfection. The truth of the matter is, sometimes, we are bound to mess up. It is not bad to occasionally stray from your plan. As a human being, it is only natural. We are not robots. Life is not perfect. When you derail from your plans, you must not give up. Continue eating healthy for the rest of the day and week. The best thing to do is not dwell on it.We all have our moments.

The weight loss cycle is hard. It is important to remember that not all is lost when you “mess up” because you can always pick up where you left off.

How to handle the all or nothing approach?

Be flexible! Divide your weight loss goals proportionally, 80/20. Strive to achieve them completely 80% of the time while allowing yourself to make mistakes 20% of the time. This flexibility eliminates any need for guilty feelings when giving in to eating based on cravings or impulse (e.g.unplanned trip to a restaurant).

Don’t repeatedly start over: Continually restarting can result in feelings of failure. This decreases motivation to achieve goals while seriously jeopardizing them. No meal plan is ever perfect. If you get de-railed, keep going. Do not entertain your mind with thoughts of eating a certain food for the last time. Acknowledge your “oops” moments, but don’t dwell on them. Instead, work to improve things moving forward.

Stop beating yourself up: It’s not the end of the world to eat something unhealthy. You can reflect on the circumstances which led you to indulge your craving and make a note of avoiding it in the future. Forgive yourself, for you’re only human!

Based on these examples, we can see that losing weight is more complicated than simply “calories in / calories out.” There are many factors that combine to make losing weight difficult for some people.

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